MONTREAL — Red Bull have lodged a protest against George Russell’s Canadian Grand Prix victory.

Russell won the race under the safety car, meaning he crossed the line at a crawl ahead of Max Verstappen.

Although the stewards’ summons made no mention of what the appeal was about, Verstappen had radioed Red Bull to complain about Russell braking erratically while following the pace car.

Similarly, Russell told his team at the same time on the radio that Verstappen had tried to overtake under safety car.

Since the pack all finished bunched together at a slow pace, any time penalty for Russell would cost him the victory and shuffle him down the order.

The safety car was brought out with four laps to go as Lando Norris drove into the back of his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, crashing out of the race.

Speaking to the media shortly after Max Verstappen had gone to the stewards room, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner confirmed it was two separate appeals.

One was for Russell not staying within 10 car lengths of the safety car, as is mandated under the rules, the other for “driving erratically,’ when the Mercedes driver braked suddenly on the backstraight, something which made Verstappen briefly go ahead of him as he slowed down.

The second incident appeared to have been some gamesmanship from Russell, as passing another driver under the safety car could be something which might earn someone a penalty point.

Verstappen came into the race just one penalty point away from a ban, a talking point all week.

When asked if he felt Russell was trying to goad Verstappen, Horner said: “I think you could hear from George’s press comments yesterday, you know, his objective was reasonably clear. I don’t think there was any surprises with that”.

Horner clarified that the protest was not just related to who was driving the other car.

“It’s certainly not personal to George. The way that the regulations are… they are pretty binary, pretty clear.

“If you remember Checo [Sergio Perez] in Singapore 2022 he got two penalties for it. So there’s very clear precedents.”

As with all stewards verdicts, there is no timeline for when a decision will be made.